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| An illustration of an unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP). More than 350 UAP sightings have flooded the government's new UAP investigation office in the last year. (Image credit: Getty) |
Nearly half of all new UFO cases opened in 2022 cannot be explained, Pentagon
officials wrote.
The U.S. government has been inundated with hundreds of UFO encounter reports
in the past year, and about half of them remain inexplicable, according to an
unclassified document released by the
Pentagon Thursday
(Jan. 12).
The 11-page report, filed by the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence (ODNI), reveals that the Pentagon has cataloged a total of 510
reports of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) — or
unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), as the government prefers to call them
— largely filed by U.S. military personnel. Of these cases, 366 were newly
identified in 2022, while the remaining 144 were identified in a prior ODNI
report that looked at UFO data compiled between 2004 and 2017.
Of the 366 newly opened cases, 195 have been initially resolved with
relatively mundane explanations; according to the report, 26 cases were
identified as drones, 163 were classified as "balloons or balloon-like
entities," and six were labeled as airborne clutter, such as birds or
plastic bags. These findings fit with prior claims from Pentagon officials
that most recent UAP reports were likely the results of foreign surveillance
drones and clutter.
The remaining 171 cases are still "uncharacterized and unattributed," due to
a lack of detailed data, according to the report. Some of these cases, which
involved objects moving in unusual or inexplicable ways, remain under
investigation.
The report declines to mention the possibility of alien involvement in any
cases.
However, it does state that "no encounters with UAP confirmed to contribute
directly to adverse health-related effects to the observer" — contrary to a
litany of questionable UAP reports released in 2022 claiming that some
civilians suffered radiation burns, brain damage or "unaccounted for
pregnancy" as a result of UFO encounters. (Those reports date as far back as
1873 and were not part of the Pentagon's recent investigations.)
The U.S. government has taken a renewed interest in UFO investigations over
the past several years, ever since leaked military footage of several
unidentified aircraft moving in seemingly impossible ways made its way to
the mainstream media.
In early 2022, the Pentagon founded a new office specifically to coordinate
and investigate UFO reports from U.S. military personnel. The office, called
the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, has taken charge of the 366 newly
identified reports and expects to receive many more as the government works
to destigmatize UAP reporting in the interest of national security, agency
officials said.
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